By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
Financial technology (FinTech) stakeholders have called for the development of robust technology standards in order to ensure security of data and growth of the FinTech sector. The stakeholders, who made the call at the recent KPMG Digital Summit in Lagos, warned that epayment with ecommerce ecosystem risks being stunted without robust technology and strong support institutions.
The CEO of Venture Garden, Bunmi Akinwuni argued that the need to have technology standards in the electronic payment space has become imperative and as such the government and the regulators must ensure an environment in which FinTech innovation can blossom unhindered.
Read: http://itedgenews.africa/2017/02/13/lagos-looks-to-have-a-fintech-hub/
“The role of government and regulators is important in the FinTech ecosystem. It has been said that the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) must decide what they stand for. They can decide they will want to either stand for the growth of the local industry or project Nigeria as an African electronic payment hub.
“The regulators must decide and position the industry. If the government doesn’t take this decision, countries like Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa would take over the ecosystem,” he said.
He added that there is need for the banking system to be made scalable and innovative. Presently, the cost of regulating and serving the financially underserved is very high and with this approach, financial inclusiveness would be deepened.
“Nigeria is sitting in a good space and there are huge opportunities in the banking sector and banks should start looking at the acquisition of FinTech firms in Nigeria,” Bunmi noted.
The Co-founder of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Yeji noted that there’s need for collaboration among the regulators, so a single framework could be adopted while technology is being deployed to bring down the cost of compliance.
He also noted that a lot of FinTech companies are becoming open with their dealings which have made many banks to start taking these startups serious, so the government and the regulators must encourage the FinTechs to focus on their niche areas to grow the sector.
Adebisi Shonubi of the CBN, however, encouraged the FinTechs to start understanding their market and where they intend to play in, while agreeing that “there is need for collaboration in order to increase the scalability of FinTechs”.
Related: http://itedgenews.africa/2017/06/15/fintrak-argues-local-content-ifrs-9-software-implementation/
